A week at home alone with 5 kids - the horror!

"Because I Said So" column for The Commercial Appeal

Aug. 5, 2010

I'm going to have to ask you all to listen closely as I type this in a whisper. This week's column comes to you from deep within my walk-in closet, just off the bathroom.

This is one of the toughest times of the year for our household -- the week before the Memphis City Schools resume for the year. My wife, Kristy, teaches English at Central High School, and teachers are required to report to work one week before the students arrive to prepare for the coming year.

At least, that's what Kristy has always told me. She leaves here early in the morning and returns in the late afternoons smelling vaguely of textbooks and happy hour.

So this is my week alone on the front lines. It's the time for me to set aside work and other activities to see to the well-being of the children. As an extra bonus, I'm watching a friend's 3-year-old son as well. That means there are five of them out there. I can hear them through the closed closet and bathroom doors and the locked bedroom door beyond.

Any family, no matter its makeup, is about working together and cooperating to get through the trying times, and the children have done just that. Like the group of stranded ruffians in "Lord of the Flies," they've banded together and claimed the kitchen, living room and my office as their own ... (read more)

In social networking, 'unfriending' is popular option when coversation turns unfriendly

Lifestyle feature for The Commercial Appeal

June 5, 2010

Virginia Ivy, former Memphian and current resident of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, was raised with true Southern manners to believe that it is in poor taste to discuss politics, religion or money in social situations that are not specifically geared to those conversations.

"I started out on Facebook posting my political positions, but have since weaned off of it since I do not appreciate others' opinions opposite of mine when I am logging on for social stress relief," said the 39-year-old virtual manager for a New York corporate travel agency. "I un-friend people who post or link to hateful things."

Debate swirls over privacy concerns and information sharing on Facebook, but navigating the social network also leads to other questions, including those of etiquette -- what to talk about and how much to talk about it.

Certainly there is a decorum to be followed in face-to-face social situations, whether a dinner party, play date or actual date, but what of the fairly faceless medium of social media? Do the same rules apply and to what outcome? ... (read more)

School's out, so is structure for the summer

"Because I Said So" column for The Commercial Appeal

May 27, 2010

My family and I began our summer season last Saturday with the first weekend of the Levitt Shell's free concert series in Overton Park.

We spent the evening on a quilt spread in the grass listening to Jimbo Mathus perform his home-grown Delta music for a home-grown crowd.

It was the perfect evening as we lay there listening to songs about Skateland and cornbread, with the park and zoo as backdrop and a FedEx plane aligning itself for landing. The scene couldn't have been more Memphis-centric if Elvis and Isaac had shown up to serve barbecue.

The kids danced like little hipsters and I regaled them with a story of the time I spotted Jimbo from two checkout lanes away at the Midtown Schnucks.

Saturday night was the calm before my summer storm. School ended for the year only three days later and, just like that, our children's teachers expect us to take care of these kids all day long. We'll have to feed them, entertain them and see that they're safe.

It's going to be like a full-time job. The pay is terrible ... (read more)

Technology takes Ridgeway Middle music to new level

Spot news story for The Memphis Daily News

May 21, 2010

The walls of a cinderblock city school classroom in East Memphis are hung with posters of John Coltrane, King Oliver, Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Billie Holiday and a 78-inch interactive whiteboard called an ActivBoard.

In a medium whose foundation is built on the bar chords of the blues and sound of the sax, technology has been introduced to engage children and introduce them to those a world away in Ken Greene’s music class.

Greene, music teacher and choir director at Ridgeway Middle School, recently demonstrated how technology is used to teach students and connect with other programs.

“Do you mind if we jam with you?” Greene asked his counterpart from Weyanoke Elementary School in Fairfax, Va ... (read more)

Art infusion: local artists look to beef up market in Midtown

Small business spotlight for The Memphis Daily News

April 6, 2010

Frank Roberts, the owner of nine businesses in six buildings known collectively as The Palladio Group, understands the way to best use retail space.

When his tenant at 2256 Central Ave., Artists on Central, with its various art vendors and flea market feel, fell on difficult times in 2008, Roberts felt that the century-old house could be used better. He wanted to upgrade the offerings and inject the Cooper-Young area with fine art.

“Artists on Central had an image that was not consistent, nor could it be made consistent with our vision, and where there’s no vision, people perish,” said Roberts, whose background is in architecture and home building. “So we wanted to be sure there was a very clear vision and a deliberately chosen and focused point to reach that vision: a true fine art gallery, a sophisticated gallery, not intimidating and stuffy.” ... (read more)

Memphian relishes writing role as second story hits the shelves

Feature profile for The Commercial Appeal

March 28, 2010

Memphian Molly Caldwell Crosby credits her career as an author in the narrative non-fiction genre to her time as a researcher for writers at National Geographic magazine and a "morbid attraction to tragic stories."

"It (narrative non-fiction) tends to be a lot of hurricanes and earthquakes and great fires," she said, "not exactly uplifting."

Crosby's second book, "Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries" (Berkley Books, $24.95), was released earlier this month. It's the story of the sleeping sickness, or encephalitis lethargica, of the early 1900s, an epidemic that rode in on the wave of the Spanish flu outbreak of the time.

Falling into long sleeps for weeks or months, the victims totaled 5 million, with nearly a third of them dying. The disease would later be the focus for Oliver Sacks' book "Awakenings" and the movie of the same name.

Crosby, 37, grew up in Dallas and moved to Memphis to attend Rhodes College, where she graduated in 1995 with a degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing ... (read more)

Oscar un-worthy films can be more fun to talk about than the best flicks

Lifestyle cover feature for The Commercial Appeal

March 4, 2010

"You don't understand. I coulda' had class. I coulda' been a contender. I coulda' been somebody ..."

The line is from "On the Waterfront," and the film was certainly more than a contender. One of the greats, it garnered eight Academy Awards for 1954, including best picture, director, actor and actress.

But what of the others? In a year that saw 1,870 films released, according to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), they couldn't have all been great, they couldn't all be contenders.

Sure, there was "The Caine Mutiny," "Rear Window," "Dial M For Murder" and "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," but not every movie would go on to become mainstays in popular culture. Some had to be bums.

In just a few days, film buffs will be abuzz with the winners from the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, where the best of the best will be honored.

While it is an honor just to be nominated, what of those that aren't? "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" isn't nominated for Best Picture. Neither is "Crank: High Voltage," "G-Force" nor "2012." Are these the worst films of last year, or will they one day be included on someone's list of the worst of all time? ... (read more)